198 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



Notes on Birds in Barra. — The two following birds, which I 

 have not observed in the two Uists or Benbecula, nest and remain 

 during the whole year in Barra : Redbreast {Erithacus rubecula, L.) 

 There are about half a dozen pairs of these now over the island, in 

 gardens and young plantations, although three years ago I did not 

 see a single bird. Last year a pair nested in the the Northbay 

 garden, and this year I got two nests there, one on the 6th of May 

 with six eggs. During the past winter, which was more severe here 

 than usual, the birds were always seen about the garden and steading. 



Hedge Sparrow {Accentor modularise L.) — There are several 

 pairs of these throughout the island, and I have got two of their 

 nests this season. I never saw the bird in Uist. 



Tree Sparrow (Passer montanus, L.) — This species is now very 

 numerous on the island, especially in the garden at Eoligary, where 

 it has been for at least forty or fifty years. This, no doubt, is 

 the bird which Macgillivray mistook for the House Sparrow (P. 

 domesticus, L.), which he says he found at the ruins of Kilbar, which 

 are quite close to the Eoligary garden. 



We have also a few pairs of the Reed Bunting (Emberiza schon- 

 nic/us, L.) and the Stonechat (Pratincola rubicold) all the year, and 

 the Greenfinch (Ligurinus chloris, L.) as a migrant, but these occur 

 in Uist. — J. MacRury, Barra. 



Unusual Nesting Place for the Dipper (Cinclus aquaticus, 

 Bechst.) — Though the Dipper occasionally builds on the old moss- 

 covered roots of trees supporting the banks of a stream, seldom or 

 never does it do so on the tree itself; the following particulars may 

 therefore be interesting and worth recording. The nest I allude to 

 was found by Mr. Wood, of Freeland, on the River May (Perthshire) 

 in the early summer of 1890. It was situated on the naked limb 

 of an ancient alder overhanging the stream. The end of the limb 

 had been formerly broken off, together with a considerable sized 

 branch, leaving a jagged stump. On this the nest was constructed 

 about four feet above the water at midstream, or about twelve feet 

 from either bank. It appears as if during the previous winter floods 

 some turfy matter had become firmly fixed and entangled on the 

 stump, owing to the long grass attached to it, so as to have induced 

 the birds to make use of it as a nesting place, possibly by way of 

 deception, artfully blending the materials into the nest with some of 

 the long grass hanging down so as to give the general effect to the 

 unsuspicious passer by of a clod of earth, the remnants of some high 

 spate, to which the May is very subject : the more especially would 

 this be so, the entrance to the nest being only visible from under- 

 neath. Mr. Wood kindly had the portion of the branch with the 

 nest on it undisturbed carefully sawn off so as to exhibit it in the 

 exact position in which it was found, and presented it to the Museum 



